A U.S. seizure of Iranian-made missiles headed to the Houthis in Yemen shows the Iranian regime continuing to sow violence and flout international rules.
“Guided missiles and improvised explosive devices are not the tools of diplomacy,” U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters February 20. “They are the weapons of war and they are what Iran brings to the table.”
The U.S. Navy February 9 boarded a boat in the Arabian Sea and seized a large cache of weapons, including 150 anti-tank guided missiles and three surface-to-air missiles, as well as components for making waterborne explosives, U.S. officials say.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo called the seizure “another example of the world’s largest state sponsor of terror the Islamic Republic of Iran continuing to defy the UN Security Council,” according to a February 14 tweet.
U.N. Security Council resolutions bar arming the Houthi rebels in Yemen and forbid Iran’s regime from buying and selling weapons. Pompeo has repeatedly urged the international community to extend the U.N. arms embargo against Iran, which expires in October.
The Iranian regime’s arming of foreign fighters comes as the country’s leaders continue to ignore the Iranian people’s calls to spend resources at home, while denying voters the opportunity to elect leaders of their choice in the parliamentary election.
The unelected Guardian Council has disqualified thousands of candidates who sought to run for office in the February 21 parliamentary elections.
“The Iranian people know that tomorrow’s election is political theater,” Hook said February 20 when he also announced that the Trump administration was sanctioning five senior regime officials who denied the Iranian people free and fair parliamentary elections. “It is a republic in name only when the government disqualifies half of the candidates running for office.”